Poetic subtle sentiments// Flowing from the heart// In calligraphic
elegance// Framed by eclectic art.// Psychedelic transcendental//
Shamanistic inspiration,// Melting mingling merging// With collective
realizations.// I am all beings.// I am all things.// I am the one in the
many.// I am also the dissolver// Of all ego too,// For (I'm happy to
say)// I am verily you.
This volume, I, was inspired by a profound experience of collective
consciousness that dawned amidst a special ceremony: deep meditation and
the sacred, mysterious, psychedelic mushrooms. This book was created
effortlessly, taking shape gradually in bursts of extraordinary
inspiration. The work starts with an important introduction entitled "Read
Me", which tells the interesting story of how the art and poems in this
collection were inspired. Next come the 16 poems, which materialized in my
mind even faster than my hand could write. All develop a common theme-the
singular yet all-embracing meaning of the entire work. Each poem is
preceded by a corresponding painting, which reflects the poem's content.
The poems are inscribed in an original style of decorated calligraphy,
infusing the words with art and subtle emotion. After each poem, author's
comments review and develop the verses in a light-hearted, sometimes poetic
style of prose.

In Psychedelics, Peter Stafford offers a framework for understanding the enormous amount of information available on psychoactive substances. In addition to the photographs, illustrations, charts, and tables, he writes about the origins, varieties, physical and mental effects, societal benefits, complications, and drawbacks of psychedelics, particularly LSD, the most potent and representative of this class of drugs. Stafford also summarizes the promising studies that were halted in the 1960s, along with developments since that time, and offers a fascinating exploration of these drugs.

It's been forty years since Timothy Leary sat beside a swimming pool in Cuernavaca, Mexico, ingested several grams of the genus Stropharia cubensis, and experienced a dazzling display of visions that led him to herald the dawning of a New Age. And yet, from the counterculture movement of the 1960s, through the War on Drugs, to this very day, the world at large has viewed hallucinogens not as a gift but as a threat to society.
In Hallucinogens, Charles Grob surveys recent writings from such important thinkers as Terence McKenna, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil, illustrating that a reevaluation of the social worth of hallucinogens-used intelligently-is greatly in order.

In LSD Psychotherapy, Dr. Grof, a conventionally-trained MD, outlines a methodology for a process that serves as a paradigm for human transformation, as well as a basis for a radically revised understanding of reality.
Dr. Grof formulated his methods based on thousands of hours of first-hand clinical experience. He valiantly tries to dispel the sensationalism and misinformation about LSD, pointing out that the drug merely amplifies pre-existing mental processes, in much the same way that a microscope or telescope affords heightened glimpses of phenomena. Indeed LSD, he has said, responsibly administered in clinical settings, could be for the sciences of mind what the telescope is for astronomy, or the microscope for medicine and biology.

Huston and Masters give a well detailed and extremely fair minded account of the psychedelic experience, primarily via LSD sessions that were recorded by observers who were trained in psychology. The book covers the myriad aspects of "the trip" from perceptions of the human body to the deep religious experience.

Cleansing the Doors of Perception is a fresh consideration of the age-old relationship between certain psychoactive plants and chemicals and mystical experience by one of the most trustworthy religious writers of our time. Author Huston Smith (most famous for his classic The World's Religions) is the Walter Cronkite of religion scholars. He has long believed that "drugs appear to be able to induce religious experiences" and that "it is less evident that they can produce religious lives." At the same time, he posits that "if ... religion cannot be equated with religious experiences, neither can it long survive their absence." Therefore, Smith's basic question about entheogens (a word he defines as "nonaddictive mind-altering substances that are approached seriously and reverently") is "whether chemical substances can be helpful adjuncts to faith." Cleansing the Doors does not offer one sustained argument in response to that question. Instead, the book collects Smith's many articles about this subject, and connects them with brief introductory essays. The writings gathered here range from personal testimony about Smith's own experience with entheogens to ethnographic work on the use of entheogens in India. Throughout, Smith's style conveys the wisdom and wonder that has guided his explorations of this strange, fascinating aspect of religious experience.

The Impact of Mushrooms on Human Consciousness and Religion, by James Arthur. This book uncovers the natural link between man, consciousness, and God, due to mankind ’s age-old symbiotic relationship with mushrooms. This discovery may at first seem abstract, wishful thinking, or even impossible; yet as evidence presented on these pages unfolds, one may find that its understanding does not require as much of a leap of faith as first thought. The author believes this to be the most significant discovery in the entire field of religious knowledge, revealing what has been, until now, hidden away in our spiritual history. According to the author, we may at last be able to open ourselves to an entirely new and valuable consciousness.

A fascinating and informative history of humankind's checkered and often ambivalent relationship with psychoactive plants and drugs. From the role of the opium poppy in ancient Mesopotamia and the ergot-based mystery cult of Eleusis, through the opium wars in China and the persecution of medieval herbalist witches, up to the 'psychedelic rebellion' of the sixties and the insanities of the current 'war on drugs,' Eschohotado covers an enormous subject with scholarly acumen and brings the light of reason to bear on topics often shrouded in bigotry, ignorance, and cupidity. Highly recommended!

In an informed and irreverent exploration of what hasn't been told about the brain's mysterious ability to hallucinate, an award-winning, independent science writer details what neuroscientists, psychopharmacologists, medicinal chemists, and psychiatrists have learned about LSD and its effects on the brain in the 54 years since its discovery.